Yahoo: Here’s why we rejected Microsoft offer

Yahoo’s surprise three-year forecast announcement on Tuesday lays out why the Internet giant has refused to budge from its belief that Microsoft’s bid severely undervalues the company.

The Sunnyvale, Calif. company believes it can nearly double its operating cash flow to $3.7 billion and boost revenue, excluding payments to affiliates, to $8.8 billion. Built into the forecast is an expectation of $1.9 billion of additional revenue over three years in display video advertising revenue, outpacing market growth rates, Yahoo said.

It also reaffirmed previously issued first quarter and full year 2008 forecasts.

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock:
“We are pleased to share with the market more details about our business and our expectations for Yahoo!’s financial performance, which provided context for our board’s unanimous rejection of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal. Yahoo! represents a truly unique strategic platform within our industry. The board of directors and management will continue to work closely together to ensure that any strategic path we pursue capitalizes on that uniqueness and value in a way that maximizes the benefit to our stockholders.”